Abstract Asthma is a complex disease defined by chronic airway inflammation and airflow limitation causing variable respiratory symptoms which include shortness of breath (SOB), wheezing, chest tightness and cough. Asthma guidelines advocate adding a second long acting bronchodilator to medium doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) rather using high doses of ICS alone to control moderate to severe persistent asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of three medication regimens indicated for Iraqi patients suffering from persistent asthma. This study was interventional randomized clinical study conducted on a sample of adult Iraqi asthmatic patients in Baghdad City. The study composed of three visits distributed over eight weeks; baseline visit followed by first follow up and second follow up visits after four and eight weeks respectively. The study enrolled 78 adult patients with moderate to severe persistent asthma as diagnosed by specialist physician according to patient history and baseline pulmonary function test (PFT) and allocated them randomly to three groups (each group included 26 patients) to receive equivalent medium doses of budesonide inhaler in addition to either formoterol inhaler, oral modified release aminophylline tablets or tiotropium inhaler (first, second and third group respectively). Sixty four patients completed this study. The mean ages of patients were above 35 years with slightly more male predominance. The study groups developed significant increase of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and forced vital capacity (FVC) values at the first follow up visit compared to baseline values (p<0.001). Thereafter, the first and third groups achieved significant higher values at the second follow up visit compared to first follow up visit (p<0.001), while second group produced no change. All the groups developed significant improvement of Mini asthma quality of life questionnaire (MiniAQLQ) scores and percentage of symptom free days (SFD) at first follow up visit and continued further significant improvement at the second follow up visit (p<0.001). Generally, between groups comparison according to extent of change of study parameters revealed that third group produced the greatest improvement over the entire study period followed by the first group, whereas the second group was associated with the least extent of improvement. This study concluded that all groups caused significant improvement in study parameters compared to baseline values and also concluded that the third group of inhaled [tiotropium/budesonide] was associated with the highest extent of improvement followed by first group, while the second group was the least.
This work deals with preparation of zeolite 5A from Dewekhala kaolin clay in Al-Anbar region for drying and desulphurization of liquefied petroleum gas. The preparation of zeolite 5A includes treating kaolin clay with dilute hydrochloric acid 1N, treating metakaolin with NaOH solution to prepare 4A zeolite, ion exchange, and formation. For preparation of zeolite 4A, metakaolin treated at different temperatures (40, 60, 80, 90, and 100 °C) with different concentrations of sodium hydroxide solution (1, 2, 3, and 4 N) for 2 hours. The zeolite samples give the best relative crystallinity of zeolite prepared at 80 °C with NaOH concentration 3N (199%), and at 90 and 100°C with NaOH concentration solution 2N (184% and 189%, respectively). Ze
... Show MoreThe problem in the design of a cam is the analyzing of the mechanisms and dynamic forces that effect on the family of parametric polynomials for describing the motion curve. In present method, two ways have been taken for optimization of the cam size, first the high dynamic loading (such that impact and elastic stress waves propagation) from marine machine tool which translate by the roller follower to the cam surface and varies with time causes large contact loads and second it must include the factors of kinematics features including the acceleration, velocity, boundary condition and the unsymmetrical curvature of the cam profile for the motion curve.
In the theoretical solution
... Show MoreGenerally, statistical methods are used in various fields of science, especially in the research field, in which Statistical analysis is carried out by adopting several techniques, according to the nature of the study and its objectives. One of these techniques is building statistical models, which is done through regression models. This technique is considered one of the most important statistical methods for studying the relationship between a dependent variable, also called (the response variable) and the other variables, called covariate variables. This research describes the estimation of the partial linear regression model, as well as the estimation of the “missing at random” values (MAR). Regarding the
... Show MoreToday, urban Stormwater management is one of the main concerns of municipalities and stakeholders. Drought and water scarcity made rainwater harvesting one of the main steps toward climate change adaptation. Due to the deterioration of the quality of urban runoff and the increase of impermeable urban land use, the treatment of urban runoff is essential. Best Management Practice (BMP) and Low Impact Development (LID) approaches are necessary to combat climate change consequences by improving the quantity and quality of water resources. The application of Bioswales along urban streets and roadways can reduce the stress on water resources, recharge groundwater and prevent groundwater pollution. While Sulaymaniyah City has a
... Show MoreThe adsorption of copper ions onto produced activated carbon from banana peels (with particle size 250 µm) in a single component system with applying magnetic field has been studied using fixed bed adsorber. The fixed bed breakthrough curves for the copper ions were investigated. The adsorption capacity for Cu (II) was investigated. It was found that 1) the exposure distance (E.D) and strength of magnetic field (B), affected the degree of adsorption; and 2) experiments showed that removal of Cu ions and accumulative adsorption capacity of adsorbent increase as the exposure distance and strength of magnetic field increase.
An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection and quantitation of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against vero- cytotoxine (VT) producing Escherichia coli serogroup O157:H7 was produced. E. coli O157: H7 lipopolysaccharide was extracted from locally isolated strains by using hot phenol- water method, followed by partial purification using gel filtration chromatography by sepharose- 4B. The purity of the lipopolysaccharide was checked by measuring the protein and nucleic acid content and then used as antigen. Four isolates of vero- cytotoxin producing E. coli serogroup O157:H7 was obtained by culturing 350 stool samples from children suffering from bloody diarrhea. These isolates were identified on bacteriological, s
... Show MoreBackground: the early identification of developmental disabilities allows intervention at the earliest possible point to
improve the developmental potential.
Objective: Identify the scope of knowledge of nurses toward signs of gross motor delay for children and its relation to
their demographic characteristics.
Methodology: A descriptive study design was conducted at (18) primary health care centers in first of the primary
health care sector of Alhawija District in Kirkuk Governorate. This study started from September 2010 to the end of
January 2011, in order to identify the level of nurses' knowledge toward signs of gross motor delay for children in
primary health care centers. Non probability (purposive) sample of
Aceclofenac (AC) is an orally active phenyl acetic acid derivative, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with exceptional anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic properties. It has low aqueous solubility, leading to slow dissolution, low permeability and inadequate bioavailability. The aim of the current study was to prepare and characterize AC-NS-based gel to enhance the dissolution rate and then percutaneous permeability. NS.s were prepared using solvent/antisovent precipitation method at different drug to polymer ratios (1:1, 1:2, and 1:3) using different polymers such as poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP-K25), hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC-E5) and poloxamer® (388) as stabilizer
... Show MoreIn this paper, the proposed phase fitted and amplification fitted of the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method were derived on the basis of existing method of 4(5) order to solve ordinary differential equations with oscillatory solutions. The recent method has null phase-lag and zero dissipation properties. The phase-lag or dispersion error is the angle between the real solution and the approximate solution. While the dissipation is the distance of the numerical solution from the basic periodic solution. Many of problems are tested over a long interval, and the numerical results have shown that the present method is more precise than the 4(5) Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method.